That feeling day before race – mix of anxiety and excitement. Especially when it is your first in ages. Like a small kid and on the race day it’s getting even crazier. I was really excited and kind of stressed but Bozena was ok. I supposed to run half marathon and Bozena was running 10 K. And she was calm as cucumber…
We chose to run local race in Attymass organized by Cezary’s run4time. Couple weeks before race we got details of route and it was little bit scary. 10.5 km loop, most of it besides lakes. So, opened to wind. Then 2 km here and 2 km back at the end of the loop. Oh… and at least 90 m incline on each loop. Living and training in Mayo ascend shouldn’t been an issue for us but you all know. When you want to go racing that can hurt you. At the end incline wasn’t big issue. Every runner agreed that it was wind which cause problems during event. And that was truth. After third right turn (in theory left when starting, 3 rights, left and turn around on each loop) head wind was hitting you, pace was going down, every small hill was a challenge. And from this turn (about 4 km) till turn around point (around 6.5 km) with small break for downhill into the village we were hitting head winds and hills. But then last 2 km of the loop was with back wind. And that really helped. Little bit time to relax body, get breathing check. Get water at the end of the loop and get on the road again for another 10 km…
History of the race… how was it for me? A per usual, went to quick. Saw runners in front of me with ‘bullseye’ on their backs. There was two of them. One, I knew from previous runs and facebook, I knew there is no chance of even competing with him. Second, never seen on any runs. For him that was first ever half marathon race, which would explain why never saw him 😉 And again, he had ‘bullseye’ on his back. And again, I shouldn’t have even try to catch him as could see that he was going very strong. Looks like he was going for pace around 4:50 – 4:55 minutes per km. First runner was gone. Second was in front of me. Saw him all the time when we were going around lakes. But that means I was stupid going so quick. On the famous third right turn when we got head wind I could see that same way it impacted me it has impacted him little bit more. Two small hills (with wind those looked as huge now) and I could see that I’m very close behind him. And on the downhill I was able to overtake him. I knew that I’m going too fast and told him ‘Don’t worry, you will overtake me later’. He reminded me about that at the finishing line. He never overtook me. Even with wind picking up and second loop was much slower I was able to keep going. Pace went down. But last 2 km on each loop allowed me pick up pace little bit. And at the end of the race my time on watch was over 1:43. Now waiting for official results. And as it turns out first runner was running full marathon… so, wait I won half marathon race 😉
Bozenka started one hour after me. 10 K runners had to walk to start line, about 500 m into loop already. Can’t say much about her race but what I know is that she enjoyed it. She loved views, farm animals on the route, calm surrounding. What she didn’t like was the wind. She mentioned that ups and downs were actually ok. What was a problem on route was the wind. We have complained to race director – Cezary – about this. Not sure if he will do something about this for next race 😉
It was really nice to run with Bozena and to be back to racing. Both of us were happy, even when race was in the bad weather. It could be always worse, it could have rained. So, it was positive day. And we went for a late breakfast at ‘June’s tea house’ and it was lovely.
